Microbiome-Driven Quality Assessment Database System for Chinese Medicinal Materials (MQADS-CMM)
Project
name：Microbiome-Driven Quality Assessment Database System for Chinese Medicinal Materials (MQADS-CMM)
BuildTime：2026-02-02
Mark
Medicinal plants, treasures of the Chinese nation, derive their therapeutic effects from accumulated secondary metabolites. Recent research has revealed the widespread presence of a unique class of microorganisms within medicinal plants—endophytes. These endophytes reside within plant tissues, coexisting and co-evolving with their hosts over long periods. Crucially, many endophytes can either synthesize directly or induce the host to produce bioactive compounds identical or similar to those of the host, such as iridoids in Gentiana macrophylla, lignans in Eucommia ulmoides, and phthalides in Ligusticum chuanxiong. These endophytes are not only potential new sources of active ingredients but also serve as "key insights" into the mechanisms underlying the authenticity of medicinal materials and their life activities. The quality of medicinal plants is intrinsically linked to the content and types of their active ingredients, and endophytes profoundly influence medicinal material quality through various mechanisms. Some endophytes can independently produce medicinally active compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids, and terpenes. Endophytic colonization can activate or enhance specific metabolic pathways in host plants, thereby promoting the accumulation of active ingredients. Furthermore, endophytic community structures are influenced by environmental factors such as origin, climate, and soil, which may be inherently linked to the formation of "authentic medicinal materials". Therefore, studying endophytes is paramount for ensuring the uniformity of medicinal material quality, tracing their geographical origin, and elucidating the scientific connotation of their authenticity. To systematically integrate and explore the endophytic resources of five important medicinal materials—Gentiana macrophylla, Cynomorium songaricum, Pinellia ternata, Eucommia ulmoides, and Ligusticum chuanxiong—we have constructed this database. This database centrally collects data on endophyte species information, genomic sequences, metabolic functions, and host-interaction relationships for these five medicinal materials. It aims to provide new perspectives for deciphering the biological mechanisms underlying the formation of pharmacologically active substances in medicinal materials. The establishment of this database lays a solid foundation for screening efficient strains, developing microbial fermentation methods for producing rare medicinal compounds, and achieving ecological cultivation and quality enhancement of Chinese medicinal materials through microbial regulation. This database is intended to be a valuable resource platform, promoting the in-depth development of research on medicinal plant-microbe interactions, and ultimately serving the modernization and industrial upgrading of Chinese medicine.
